After having escaped cruel and harsh punishment, pregnant without any support from the father of her child, Hagar felt helpless and alone. She didn’t have a single earthly friend. Grown up enslaved, she had been owned, ordered about, abused and forced to have sex with a man she didn’t love in order to bear a […]
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Do you have sympathy for your spouse, or do you have empathy? It’ll show between the sheets. Here’s the difference between the two, as described by Les Parrott, who has written a wonderful (soon to be released) book entitled Love Like That. Sympathy means that if you are standing on a dock and see someone […]
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Professional counselor Debra Fileta offers some helpful advice this week for those who no longer find themselves attracted to their spouse. What does that do to the sexual relationship? How should we respond? Deb combines much real-world experience (working with numerous couples) and biblical insight to offer a workable plan. I hope you enjoy it, […]
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Single men and women, if your checklist for a potential spouse doesn’t include one very special ingredient, you’re selling yourself short. I don’t see this trait on a lot of “desirability” lists, but Biblically speaking, I think it’s pretty important. Look for a valiant mate. When Saul was chosen as Israel’s first king, he was […]
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When we forget that evil exists within our own hearts; indeed, when we stop ordering our thinking and feeling around God and begin to live to please ourselves, we open the door to all kinds of evil in our marriage, especially the evil we are most likely to be unaware of or excuse: the evil […]
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When I first wrote Sacred Influence in 2004, pornography got a few paragraphs. When I rewrote Sacred Influence to become Loving Him Well (just released), a wife dealing with her husband’s pornography became an entire chapter. In fact, it is now the longest chapter in the book. The rise of high-speed Internet access has transformed […]
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When Your Marriage is Going in the Wrong Direction, Doing Nothing is Usually Your Worst Choice [Note: this week’s blog post is an adaptation from my newly released book Loving Him Well: Practical Advice for Influencing Your Husband, which is a rewritten version of Sacred Influence. For this reason, it primarily addresses women and wives, […]
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Legend has it that in a land far away, many centuries ago, there lived a husband who welcomed his wife’s rebukes. When she challenged him on some weakness in his character, he listened patiently and humbly, thanked her for her loving concern, made her remarks a matter of prayer, and changed his behavior accordingly. Eventually, […]
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Lisa and I are about to embark on a Win Shape Sailboat Cruise where I’ll be speaking once every evening, and Lisa will be planning the play during the day. We’ll be out of the country, and I may not have the ability to interact with comments until we get back, but the thought of […]
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When a family member—a spouse or a child—misbehaves or breaks your heart, the most natural reaction is to ask, “What did I do wrong?” Wrong question entirely. A therapist friend of mine, who has worked with thousands of couples in heartbreaking situations, always asks such people, “When God created the perfect world for Adam […]
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